Wireless apparatus for producing and transmitting musical sounds.



DESILETS. WIRELESS APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AND TRANSMITTING IUSICALSOUNDS APPLICATION FILED JUNE 29. 1914.

Patented Jan. 4, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I A m w A m INVENTQR DeSiZeZ's WI NESSES j WAWM AttorneyG. DESILETS.

A WIRELESS APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AND TRANSMITTING MUSICAL SOUNDS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 29, 1914.

1,166,582. Patented Jun. 4, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

I 'I I IIIIIII IIIWIIIIII K151853323 INVENTOR AnIMMI e. DE SILETS.WIRELESS APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AND TRANSMITTING MUSICAL SOUNDS.

APPLICATION FILED IUNE29, I914.

Patented Jan. 4, 1916.

3 SHEETS -SHEET 3.

WITNESSES:

Wfi

. UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGES DESILETS, OF NICOLET. QUEBEC. CANADA.

WIRELESS APPARATUS FOR I PRODUCING AND TRANSMITTING MUSICAL SOUNDS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

- Patented Jan. 4, 1910.

Application filed June 29, 1914. Serial No. 848,017.

wireless as described in the present specificae tion and illustrated inthe accompanying drawings that form part of the same.

In the present invention the ordinary wireless sending and receivingapparatus is employed, except that in place of the ordinary sending key,a plurality of keys are employed. the operation of any one of which willcause a certain musical not to be transmitted, different notes beingobtained according to which key is operated. The various musical notesare obtained through the medium of annular rows of rotating spark gaps,each row producing sparks of greater or less frequency than the adjacentrows. A most convenient way of obtaining this result is to provide theannular rows of spark gaps in the form of points or studs projectingradially from the surface of a conical or frusto-conical rotor, thepoints in one row being the same distance apart as the points in anyother row. Thus, the points in the row of greatest diameter would bemore in number and would travel at a greater speed than the points inthe row of smallest diameter and produce sparks with greater rapidity.In order to produce a regular scale of musical sounds the num ber ofpoints on each row is determinated by the following relation between thenumber of points in two adjacent rows well known in acoustics apparatus.Fig. 5 illustrates a diagrammatic view of the regulators for producingpianisslmo, fortissimo etc;

Referring to the drawings, which of course do not show the receivingapparatus wh ch is the same as any ordinary outfit, 1 indlcates a rotorin frusto-conical shape supported on a shaft 2 rotated in any suitablemanner for example, by an electric motor. The rotor 18 here shown asprovided with eight annular rows of radially projecting points 3, 4, 5,6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 corresponding 1n number to the natural notes in anoctave though it must be understood that the rotor could be of suchlength as to include more than one octave, but in order to keep down thesize of the apparatus, it is preferred to provide the semitones andadditional octaves 1n the manner hereinafter described.

The points belonging to each of the annular rows and the different roWsbefore mentioned are electrically connected to each other and to theshaft 2. Further, the points of one row are the same distance apart asthe points on the other rows and as an example, it may be mentioned forpurposes of comparison that if the row 3 contams twenty-four points, therow 4 contains twenty-seven. the row 5 thirty, the row 6 thirty-two, therow 7 thirty-six, the row 8 forty, the row 9 forty-five and the row 10forty-eight, according to the relation before mentioned.

The points before mentioned form poles and operate in conjunction with aplurality of fixed poles 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18, one for eachrow of spark gaps and carried by a suitable insulator 19 provided withterminals 20 to which, and the fixed poles. are connected electric wires21 leading fromthe key board 22.

The key board 22 comprises a set of keys 23. 2-1, 25, 26, 27, 28. 29 and30, each of which is pivoted intermediately to a fixed Wooden bar 31.The underside of the outer end of each key carries a contact 32electrically connected by means such as the spring 3 to one of the wires34 of the line circuit and the other wire 35 of the line circuit beingprovided with a contact 36 beneath each key adapted to cooperate withthe contact 32 to close the line circuit. Both ends of a key areinsulated from each other by the joining arm made of suitable insulatingmaterial.

The outer end 37 of each key is provided pianissimo,

with a contact 38 at its upper end which contact is also connectedbeneath the key to one of the high tension wires 39 by means of thespring 40. 41 are sprlng contacts insulated from each other,respectively extending from terminals 42 to which the wires 21 areconnected. All the contacts 38 are normally away from the contacts 41and in pressing a key, the said contacts are adapted to be closed just alittle before the contact 32 at the other end of the key touches thecontact 36. Thus, the high tension contacts are closed before thetension and opened after the opening of the low tension contacts, whichprevents sparking at the high tension contacts.

The wire 34 is connected with'the primary coil of a transformer 43,while the wire 39. supported by an insulator is connected to thesecondary coil of the transformer. The shaft 2 is also connected by awire 44 to the ground wire 45 of the ordinary wireless outfit while theusual helix 46 (an oscillation transformer may also be used) andcondenser 47 are employed, the former being connected with an antenna inthe usual manner.

It will thus be seen that a series of sparks can be obtained at any oneof the fixed poles 18 by reason of the closure of the high tensioncircuit consequent upon the pressure of the key corresponding to thatparticular fixed pole and, as hereinbefore explained, musical notes willbe produced by the difference in the frequency of formation of thevarious series of sparks.

Obviously, in order to produce chords, it is only necessary to supply acurrent of sufficient intensity to permit of a plurality of differentsets of sparks at the same time consequent upon the pressure of thecorresponding number of keys. Further, regu lation inthe volume of soundfor producing fortissimo and similar effects can be provided for by theinclusion of a rheostat in the primary circuit which may be regulated bythe foot illustrated in Fig. 5 in which 48 is a foot push-button havingthe stub 49 which comes in contact when the said push-button is presseddownwardly with the contacts 50 and 51 is a wire connected at one end toone of the contacts and at the other end to a rheostat 52 which isconnected to a wire 53 leading from said rheostat and connected inseries with the primary of a transformer.

54 is a wire connected to the other contact and at its other end inseries with the primary of a transformer.

In order to produce an octave higher, the preferable form is to use anexactly similar rotor and revolve it at twice the speed of the rotor 1and similarly an octave lower could be produced by rotating a similarrotor at half the speed of the rotor 1. The

semitones are obtained inthe preferred form by a set of rows exactlycorresponding to the rows 27 30, 36, 40 and 45 traveling at a rate -ofspeed 1/20 less than the rotor 1. For example, if the rotor 1 isrevolving at 500 r. p. m.,.the semitone rows must revolve at 47 5 r. p.m. The different speeds of rotation may be obtained by gearing and ofcourse there will always be a fixed pole and key for each row andsimilar to those already described. This modification is illustrated inFig. 4 showing a motor 55 rotating shaft 56, which is secured to thedriving gears 57 and 58.

59 and 60 are spur gears mounted on the shafts 61 and 62 and 63 and 64are the rotors mounted'on "said shaft, said rotors being similar inconstruction as the rotor 1 illustrated in Fig. l.

It will be noticed that the gear 60 is of larger diameter than the gear59 and that the gear 58 is of smaller diameter than the gear 57. It willtherefore be readily understood that the rotor 63 will be driven at ahigher speed than the rotor 64, the result being that the rotor 64 willbe of an octave lower than the rotor 63.

It is thought that the operation of the invention will be wellunderstood from the foregoing description, but it will be obvious thatthe key board in this invention may be of any compass, that is to say,that any number of different musical notes may be obtained by extendingthe rotor 1 or providing additional rotors as before described.

What I claim is:

1. In a means for producing and transmitting musical sound by a wirelessapparatus, the combination with an antenna and current supplying means,of a plurality of keys controlling both primary. and secondary currentof a transformer and means whereby the operation of any one of said keysproduces sparks at a predetermined frequency different than that of theadjacent keys. v

2. In a means for producing and transmit ting musical sounds by awireless apparatus, the combination with an antenna and currentsupplying means, of a plurality of rotary spark gaps, a circuit for saidgaps directly associated with said antenna, controlling keys, and meansfor producing sparks in said spark gaps consequent upon the operation ofsaid keys.

3. In a means for producing and transmitting musical sounds by aWireless apparatus, the combination with an antenna and currentsupplying means, of a plurality of rows of rotating spark gaps, acircuit for said gaps directly associated with said antenna, acontrolling key for each of said rows, means for producing sparks ineach row separately consequent upon the operation of its particularcontrolling key and means p ting musical sounds trols sparks'o differentfrequency to those created by the operation of the other keys.-

4. In a means for roducing and transmity a wireless apparatus, thecombination with an antenna and current supplying means, of a pluralityof annular rows of spark gaps, a circuit for said gaps directlyassociated with said antenna, a xed pole for each of said rows, a keycontrollin the supply of current to each of lSitid xed polesindividually and means whereby said rows of spark gaps produce each aseries of sparks of different frequency to the other rows.

5. In a means for roducing and transmitting musical sounds y a wirelessapparatus,

the combination with an antenna and cur-- rent supplyin means, of aplurality of an nular rows 0 rotating spark gaps, a circuit for saidgaps directly assoc ated with said antenna, each row being-of differentdiameter to the others and means'for pro ducinlg sparks in said gaps.

a means for'producing and transmitting musical sounds by a wirelessapparatus, the combination with an antenna and current supplying means,of a plurality of annular rows of rotating spark gaps, each row being ofdifferent diameter to the others, a fixed pole for each of said rows,means for controlling a sup 1y of current to each of said poles indiviually and means for rotating said spark gap rows collectively.

7. In a means for ro ucing and transmitting musical sounds y a wirelessapparatus, the combination with an antenna and current supplying means,of a plurality vof different diameter annular rows of ark ps, means forrotatin said rows co ective y, a fixed pole for eac of said rows, acontrolling-key for each of said fixed oles' and means for closing acircuit supplygg a hi h.

tension current to each of-said fixed p0 es izon'egquent upon thepressure of its particuar e 8. Iii a means for roduc' and transmittingmusical sounds y a-wi 08s apparatus, the combination with an antenna andcurrent supplying means, of a plurality of groups of rotating sparkgaps, means for rotating said groups simultaneously and each group at adifferent speed to the others,

each of said groups comprising annular rows of spark gaps,1 acontrolling key for each of said rows and means for producing sparks inany one row consequent upon the operation of its particular key.

' 9. In a means for producing and transmitvsparks of different frequencyto the others and a .rheostat in said current supplying means forthe'purpose of producing shades of tone.

10. In a means for producing and trans-' mitting musical sounds by awireless apparatus, the combination with an antenna andcurrent supplyingmeans, of a rotor, a plurality, of e ui-distant points projecting fromthe circum er'ence .of said rotor and forming spark gaps, said pointsbeing arran ed in annular rows and the points of eac row beingelectrically connected together and in cluded in the circuit of theaforesaid current supplyin means, means for revolving said rotor, a eyfor controlling the sparks in each of said rows and meanswhereby eachrow produces sparks of different frequency to the other rows.

11. In a means for producing and transmitting musical sounds by awireless apparatus, the combination with an antenna and currentsupplying means, of a rotor tapering in an axial direction, a pluralityof annular rows of equi-distant pomts ro ecting from the surface of saidrotor an forming spark galps, the points of each row being electrica 1yconnected to each other and included in the circuit of the aforesaidcurrent supplying means,-a key for each of said rows,

means whereby the pressure of any one key causes sparks in itsparticular row, whereby the sparks of each row occur at differentfrequenc to the other rows.

SIgne 29th day of May 1914.

GEORGES DESILET S.

Witnesses:

HONORE R. Dmmnsxn, Rum Honnn.

at Nicolet, Quebec, Canada, this

